TheBauhausCure wrote:After all this, it'd be so sad to see it washed away. I know it's inevitable, but I'd rather the roller-coaster of emotions this comic has been to end on a happy note.

Every person obviously interprets it differently, but for me, I don't think the castle being washed away (or eroded, or otherwise destroyed through natural processes) is necessarily sad. It's kind of peaceful really, and in some ways romantic. Here's this thing these two (presumed) lovers built together, and only time and mother earth can break it down again - but it's not destroyed, it just kind of disassembles it for the next happy builders to come along and repeat the sequence. Without the destruction there can be no new creation - eventually we'd just run out of material. Nothing humans make is endless, but this is about as nice an end as any human creation could wish for. Better than if it were a real castle, pretty much designed to be invaded by hostile forces looking to tear it down.

I really hope Randall ends this on an obvious ending. If he were to go for a loop or a subtle ending, this thread could go on for weeks after it is all over, speculating what it all meant. And as much as I love you guys, I need to get back to the outside at some point... Not sure i could handle this going on forever...

Pikrass wrote:The sea is sloooowly rising. That gives credit to the Great Destruction And Loop theory.If this goes like when the camera zoomed out, it should rise exponentially, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Yet.

Assuming all the following: -the flow of their time is constant between newpix -this it is in fact a tide, -the tide is following a normal sinusoidal pattern -the tide will rise around 100-200 pixels or enough to wipe out the castle

and given: -we have had about 190 frames at the baseline of the sine curve -its now only just starting to visibly rise at a rate of at a guess less than 0.5 pixels per newpix

then by my calculations, we are looking at least 2000 more frames before full tide.

Of course, if one was to hypothesize that their time is about 10 hours for the nearly 200 frames we've seen (a full day at the beach), then that's a tidal cycle of about 8 days which is ridiculous. If the tidal cycle is accurately 2 per 24 hours then everything we have seen, the sitting, the sandcastles, the swimming, all took place in a little over 30 minutes.

Srt252 wrote:THEORY: This is a comic set in XKCD-verse, wherein tides may not exist. And physics happens as Randall sees fit

Well, Randall is the "Creator of Time" so he can do that if he wants.

"HAL9000" This thread is a goldmine for signatures."StratPlayer" All in all, that sand paper rubbed me the wrong way."charlie_grumbles" The secret of the geeks. "Copy, Borrow, Steal, Succeed""ucim" There's a forestful of treeish people here. Welcome! Confused? See here.

All hail divine Lord RandallAuthor of the One True ComicIllustrator of SandcastlesKeeper of the NewpixCreator of TimeWe have seen the CastlesWe reject the OutsideWe watch TimeWe do not restWe Wait For It

ChronosDragon wrote:The One True Comic is absolute, it is usually reality that is inaccurate.

Yes! Maybe that is a world of less gravity, and the moon can stay at the same distance but move slower in order to keep a roughly circular orbit! Or the moon is just more massive and further away. (If there even is a moon)

Maybe. not gonna change it until something actually changes, though; it might wind up being closer to The Age of Calm, or something, if an actual, faster slowtide does show up. If nothing happens for 3 more newpix, perhaps.

P.S. I am not Randall. I am an initiate of Time. All is measured by the passage of the Newpix.

susanoodin wrote:For some reason I keep expecting a horde or knights or something to come riding at me from the gap in between the two castles

I would love that. Personally, I'm hoping for some really unrelated hilarious ending. People have speculated repeatedly about raptors showing up and tearing everything apart, and if that happened I'm pretty sure every person on this forum would actually here me laugh, no matter where they are located.

I am disappointed that Randall apparently didn't make a realistic tide. It could have started out going slowly downwards turning and then being about to reach the castle when they left, rather than being completely immobile for the hours it must have taken them to build, and then suddenly starting to come in.

Lord Cathbad wrote:Well, there could be a moon and gravitational forces trying to work on the water, but Randall did import antigravity.

Maybe they implanted a device in the beach, stopping the tides from rising or falling, so structures like sandcastles would stay (maybe that's why some overhangs fall of more than others). And maybe they implemented some breakwaters and stuff to stop waves interfering with the coast.

...Or maybe we're just over-analyzing this comic, and it's actually just a simple story of 2 people on an arbitrary, unrealistic beach...

susanoodin wrote:For some reason I keep expecting a horde or knights or something to come riding at me from the gap in between the two castles

I would love that. Personally, I'm hoping for some really unrelated hilarious ending. People have speculated repeatedly about raptors showing up and tearing everything apart, and if that happened I'm pretty sure every person on this forum would actually here me laugh, no matter where they are located.

OR the knights coming riding out of the castle RIDING the raptors! Eh? eh? ...Hurry up time!

In the beginning, I wanted to see the ending. But right now, I think that I enjoy the process more. I suppose each of us must do the best with the finite amount of sand and time and raptors that we are given in life.

Lord Cathbad wrote:Well, there could be a moon and gravitational forces trying to work on the water, but Randall did import antigravity.

Maybe they implanted a device in the beach, stopping the tides from rising or falling, so structures like sandcastles would stay (maybe that's why some overhangs fall of more than others). And maybe they implemented some breakwaters and stuff to stop waves interfering with the coast.

...Or maybe we're just over-analyzing this comic, and it's actually just a simple story of 2 people on an arbitrary, unrealistic beach...

Is that even possible? I don't know that I've ever seen an xkcd comic that was that "simple" (except maybe his very earliest stuff). Everything he does has some meaning or implication.

"HAL9000" This thread is a goldmine for signatures."StratPlayer" All in all, that sand paper rubbed me the wrong way."charlie_grumbles" The secret of the geeks. "Copy, Borrow, Steal, Succeed""ucim" There's a forestful of treeish people here. Welcome! Confused? See here.

Tass wrote:I am disappointed that Randall apparently didn't make a realistic tide. It could have started out going slowly downwards turning and then being about to reach the castle when they left, rather than being completely immobile for the hours it must have taken them to build, and then suddenly starting to come in.

T be fair, at this point, we can't even be sure if the tide phenomenon is actually a tide at all. it's a single line of darkening pixels; for all we know, they'll re-lighten in the next frame. I think that something else is gonna knock down the castle. Maybe it'll rain?

I don't think rain has been suggested before... if it was, it was somewhere in the pages I read before coffee, and I don't remember it...

P.S. I am not Randall. I am an initiate of Time. All is measured by the passage of the Newpix.

Lord Cathbad wrote:Well, there could be a moon and gravitational forces trying to work on the water, but Randall did import antigravity.

Maybe they implanted a device in the beach, stopping the tides from rising or falling, so structures like sandcastles would stay (maybe that's why some overhangs fall of more than others). And maybe they implemented some breakwaters and stuff to stop waves interfering with the coast.

...Or maybe we're just over-analyzing this comic, and it's actually just a simple story of 2 people on an arbitrary, unrealistic beach...

Is that even possible? I don't know that I've ever seen an xkcd comic that was that "simple" (except maybe his very earliest stuff). Everything he does has some meaning or implication.

The thing is, that could be the very meaning, that some things don't need to have hidden meanings to be beautiful, and meaningful. This could very well be different because of it being so simple. I'm not going to bet that it is that simple, but it could very well be.

susanoodin wrote:For some reason I keep expecting a horde or knights or something to come riding at me from the gap in between the two castles

I would love that. Personally, I'm hoping for some really unrelated hilarious ending. People have speculated repeatedly about raptors showing up and tearing everything apart, and if that happened I'm pretty sure every person on this forum would actually here me laugh, no matter where they are located.

OR the knights coming riding out of the castle RIDING the raptors! Eh? eh? ...Hurry up time!

OR raptor-mounted knights invade the castle only to be attacked by a swarm of red spiders!

(side-note: I am finally caught up on the thread after 8newpix of school and 5newpix of fence building)

Keeper Of The Bags, Protector Of PunsA Timewaiter from the very beginning to the bitter end.11but not from beginning to end to beginning since I'm not a loopist

I think it would be amazing, if the picture would slowly randomly diffuse (Let's say in each frame a black pixel neighbouring a white pixel would have some probability of getting white and vice versa). How longwould it take until we reach a state of maximal enthropy?

Tass wrote:I am disappointed that Randall apparently didn't make a realistic tide. It could have started out going slowly downwards turning and then being about to reach the castle when they left, rather than being completely immobile for the hours it must have taken them to build, and then suddenly starting to come in.

I don't think there's enough evidence yet to know whether the changes in the water are from a tide. The level hasn't moved up appreciably, so it could be ripples being made by something approaching from in/across the body of water.

Rule of 12 for tides (an approximation that can be dangerous.) Assuming the height between low tide and high tide is 12 pixels, in the first hour after low tide, tide will rise 1 pixel, in the second hour 2 pixels, in the third, 3 pixels, in the fourth, 3 pixels, in the fifth, 2 pixels, in the sixth, 1 pixel. It will then fall in a corresponding pattern.

If the total range from low to high is 3 pixels, or 300 pixels, adjust accordingly.

cmyk wrote:How can I be so riveted to the Internet equivalent of watching grass grow?

Where is it said that this is the ocean? There are plenty of beaches in this world, on lakes, and even seas (if they are not merely ocean arms) that have no tides to speak of. Even the Mediterranean has rather little in the way of tides.

SilverTree wrote:Occam's Razor for me: no coffee lake, no snow, just a beach and a (awesome) sand castle.

Occam's razor is about simplifying one theory, not about picking between two theories.

May i quote Wikipedia on Occam´s razor?"It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected."

Well according to Ocam's Razor then, you do not exist. Ha.

Nope. If he doesn't exist, why is he on the forum? Ghost? Where did the ghost come from? What mechanism is therefore needed? This all needs explaining, so a better theory is that he is simply a living person.

P.S. I am Randall, but not that Randall.We can rebuild it. We have the technology. We can make it better than it was. Better … stronger … well, maybe not faster.Well, BlitzGirl is experiencing a bit of a title wave.

This thread makes me feel like I live in a different timestream from the rest of you. I feel like some kind of long-lived immortal watching fleeting human lives flit past. I glance back here every now and then, a couple times a day, maybe every few minutes of comic time, which seems frantically obsessive at my pace, and... goddamn, another few dozen pages? There's weeks and weeks of conversation happening here every hour. Whole discussions rise, run out their fleeting but passionate little lives, then wane and die in what feels like the brief moment in which I glanced away from the thread. In the time it takes me to read a new page, a dozen new posts have been posted; and in the time it takes me to read those and finally catch up, a few more. Once I finally catch up, I need only, say, check if another forum has updated or not, and come back to find more.

In the time it took me to write this post, two more posts were posted. And in the time it took me to preview/edit it, another two more. And there's another one as I preview those changes.